The Hindu Business Line : ‘The Indian market has adopted advocacy faster than many others’

Jack Leslie, the Chairman of Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s major public relations agencies, was in India last month to speak at the World Economic Forum — India Economic Summit on ‘Challenges to National and Regional Security’. A seasoned communications strategist, Leslie specialises in helping corporations and public institutions to change public attitudes rapidly on divisive, high-profile issues. Political and business leaders have sought his counsel during several crises. Among others, he has served as a communications crisis advisor to the NY-NJ Port Authority in the immediate aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing and to American Airlines following the attacks of September 11; to the Government of Colombia on illegal narcotics; to the State of Florida on the shootings of foreign tourists. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he testified before the House International Relations Committee on US public diplomacy programmes directed at the Muslim world.

Leslie is a recognised expert on marketplace and communications challenges facing the health care, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. He was a senior aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy as well as a strategist on numerous nationwide and local campaigns in the US, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has advised several heads of state on communications as well as managing trade and economic development campaigns. In an e-mail interview with BrandLine, he talks about advocacy, PR practice in the US and in India, and how PR or communication campaigns can help resolve socio-political issues.

What are the differences you see between the US and India in brand-building as well as in PR practices?

There are no major differences between brand building and PR practices of the two countries from either a strategic standpoint or tactical delivery.

If anything, emerging markets have demonstrated better integration of various disciplines of communication than the developed markets.

The biggest advantage that India has over other countries is that of its free press. The Indian media is large, diverse, and free from government regulations. Also, Indian has probably one of the most complex media set-ups in the world with numerous regional papers catering to diverse linguistic groups.

On the flip-side, India’s Internet penetration and level of social networking leave a lot to be desired. Consequently, PR in India has been more targeted towards the traditional media, as compared to the developed markets where there is greater demand for strategic services in the domains of social and digital media.

What are your impressions/experiences with PR in India? How can it be used better and which are the sectors that can use it well?

In developed markets, PR is moving towards specialisation. With growth in sectors such as healthcare, technology, finance and public affairs, PR experts need to be very knowledgeable and in sync with the trends in these sectors in order to serve their clients better and do deeper business.

Journalism too is evolving and is fast moving from generic to being more specific. Consequently, we see the emergence of a new class of journalists who specialise in their area of journalism. Thus, as PR firms begin to plan their growth the key focus area would be to recruit talent in some of these specialised areas.

The Indian market has adopted advocacy faster than many other markets in the world. At the heart of advocacy lies the recognition that our business has changed fundamentally and is not restricted to transmission of information alone. We are now more focused on engaging individuals who serve as advocates within their community. This is also the fundamental difference between the PR approach at Weber Shandwick from that of our competitors and which has brought global recognition for us with campaigns from India such as the USAID’s “Condoms Bindaas Bol”, winning major global awards such as the United Nations Grand Prize for PR Excellence 2007 and IPRA Golden World Award Grand Prize for PR Excellence 2007.

You have much experience with political and humanitarian campaigns and missions. How do you think India can benefit from that kind of expertise? Of the many political and social issues facing India, where do you think you would be able to help? And how do you handle it differently? What kind of strategy would you adopt, broadly speaking?

I can speak from my political campaign and media communication experience. The most important lesson that I have learned is the importance of research. It is very essential to understand the interests of your audience.

In elections, it is all about getting 50 per cent plus on election day. It requires a lot of discipline and changes the way you look at research to drive in the messages and move the needle to get the desired results. It is this learning that we bring from political communication into corporate communication that makes us stand out at Weber Shandwick.

Given numerous political and social issues that India is battling, we need to engage young Indians. India is a young nation where 70 per cent population falls in the 14-35 years age bracket.

The greatest challenge is to utilise this young work force effectively. Especially when most of the developed countries are losing their young population, India’s young labour force will prove to be its biggest asset in leveraging growth. Communication and education can play an integral role in engaging and empowering this young population. Given the scale, it is also a challenge for India to educate and train its young work force through effective communication and education.

The Indian Government needs to think out of the box and find ways to engage youth. India needs to evolve and leverage its young leaders who can connect better with the young and inspire them.

What is the key to a successful corporate communication/ brand building strategy?

The first important factor for a successful corporate communication strategy is Relevance. The brand communication has to be very relevant to the stakeholders and customers. The brand attributes need to connect to the stakeholders on an emotional and intellectual level and should be in sync with their lifestyles.

The other important factor is Focus. There should be discipline and simplicity in the way you carry out your brand communication. Focus and relevance are the hallmarks of good branding.

MasterCard’s Priceless campaign is a good example of this approach - the branding is sharply focused, relevant, simple and emotional.

In times of a slowdown seen as of now, when companies are cutting costs on traditional media advertising, do you see a greater role for PR in advertising and marketing communication? Please elaborate on how it can help.

In times of slowdown, traditional advertising gets affected to a greater degree than PR primarily because the budgets for advertising are larger than that for PR.

Secondly, the strong returns on investments and efficiency that PR efforts can deliver, in fact, makes companies increase investments on promotions through PR and particularly in the digital arena.

Recession is the time for smart companies to come out more strongly and aggressively with their marketing and recruitment. Retrenching is not a solution for a company in a slowing economy. For smart companies, it is an opportunity to increase their market share.

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